Recap

Alright, let's clarify something here. There is no way that I could possibly be done with this blog after this update. Part of that is due to the stories, random memories and revelations that the summer is sure to bring and part of that is due to my own state of denial that I have been thriving in, telling myself that I'm only back in the States for a short period of time before heading back for another month or so of European glory. Yeah, I love it that much.

As for recapping, let's start with the last week of London/Lagos/Sevilla. Amy and I bumped out of London early, thus missing the end of term party at ISH, which was apparently a good time. I still wish we could have gone to it AND gone to the full Lagos trip, but when it comes down to it, I think Lagos had it beat. After nearly missing the flight and sharing a sweaty embrace in Stansted Airport, Amy and I flew down to Sevilla where we met up with Eric, Melanie and Norah to head over to the bus terminal. Our bus ride to Faro was three hours long, but the wait until our train was about five hours. We survived the night thanks to Eric's blunders with a reappearing black cat, some drunk Portuguese teens who we will remember forever and the Magical Portuguese Sleeping Grass that deserves capitalization. We got into Lagos around 9:30 and headed over to our hostel, The Rising Cock. The jokes that ensued over the weekend were...fairly predictable. The rest of the day was spent at the beach, where we all got burnt and headed back to the hostel resembling two-legged lobsters.

Saturday, we booked a boat tour of the grottoes on the surrounding coastline, which was great until we stepped onto the boat. The boat itself wasn't exactly what you'd call steady, so the rocking made even the most stolid of stomachs start to feel nauseous. This in turn meant that three people were blowing chunks over the side of the boat about 20 minutes into the two hour tour we were taking. Good times. The Mananita will forever hold great memories for us all. After that, we got a brief lunch and did some souvenir shopping before taking a walk on some of the other beaches on the coast and searching for seashells; Melanie, Norah and I were also the only ones brave enough to wade into the cold waters of the Atlantic. For dinner, I had squid rings, which are like onion rings, except with squid instead of onion on the inside. SO good.

Sunday and Monday can be lumped into one paragraph. Sunday morning, we cleaned up our room/apartment in the hostel, had breakfast and then left. Oh yeah, how could I forget?? For breakfast each morning, Mama, the cook/cleaner of the Cock, made us these amazing crepes that we filled with Nutella and all sorts of amazing goodness. By far one of the best breakfasts that we've had while traveling! We made it back to Sevilla around 8 or 9 and had ice cream at Rayas before walking around the city for a while; Amy and I eventually made it back to our hostel around 12:30 or so where we talked with this really nice Canadian couple who were backpacking around Europe for a month. The next morning, we met up with Eric and Norah to go into El Catedral (third largest cathedral in Europe) and La Giralda (the 36 story tower where they would ring the bell as a call to prayer back in the day). After that, it was back to CC-CS, their school building, where Amy and I sat in on Norah and Eric's Spanish-American Civilization class. It was really cool 'cause it was all in Spanish but my Spanish comprehension was good enough that I could understand nearly all of it. I was pretty proud of myself. From there, Eric, Amy and I took a three hour tour of the city on Sevici bicicletas, which is a public mode of transportation where you purchase a seven-day pass and ride the bikes from station to station. A bird pooped on my head at some point in the ride. We ate dinner and then headed over to Triana, where we almost went to a flamenco show, but ended up not going because Eric was feeling sick and Melanie had work to do.

Tuesday, Amy left around 11:15, so Norah was my tour guide for the day. We went into the Museo de Bellas Artas, a contemporary art museum and the Real Alcazar (pronounced ray-AHL AHL-cah-zar) and got paella at this restaurant called Los Angeles, where we were mistaken for two authentic Spanish people. Norah claims it was because of her skirt; I claim it was our mad Spanish skills. Then I sat in on the Spanish-American Civ class again, which was awesome again and eventually left for the airport. Norah and I said our goodbyes and I took the bus to the airport where I found out that Amy had missed her earlier flight and had been waiting EIGHT HOURS to get on this flight with. The rest of the flight and trip back to London was hectic and trying, but we made it back to her apartment around 2:30 a.m.

And that was the amazing five-day trip to Sevilla and Lagos. There will be a couple more posts that will hopefully be shorter about the trip back to the U.S. and random anecdotes about cultural differences that will be more interesting than they sound now, I promise. But I suppose that's all for now!

Pictures from the trip:
Lagos y Sevilla (Hombre, claro)